Reservations

[Gloria688]

Looking for suggestions. I am new to hosting. When you have guests staying a few days or a week, how often, ic at all, do you go in and change the linens, towels, etc and clean up?

[Sarah977]

@Gloria688  I for one, never go into the guest space (in my case, it's a private room/bath in my home) when they are in residence, unless they ask me to for some reason. I offer clean sheets and towels after one week, but I ask if they'd like me to change them out, or would prefer to do it themselves (I'll tailor the linen change to the length of stay and circumstances- if they have  10 day reservation, I'll offer at the halfway mark, 5 days, and I had a guest who was sick all day in bed her 4th day here on a 2 week reservation, so I offered her clean linens the next day). All my guests, for over 3 years of hosting, have said they'd do it themselves, which tells me guests like to maintain their privacy. I do leave them a broom and dustpan, a clean-up cloth and some cleaning supplies, but it's up to them if they want to use them- I certainly don't expect my guests to do any heavy-duty cleaning, but they might not want to walk around on a sandy floor.

It's best not to lead Airbnb guests to think of Airbnbs as hotels with maid service. 

Of course, right now, with the coronavirus isolation directives, you wouldn't want to be going in to clean or change out linens at all during a guest stay, and would need to wait 3 days after a guest left to go in to clean and sterilize. And shouldn't be hosting at all if you have a shared-home listing.

Hosts who take longer term reservations do recommend arranging to go to clean once every 2 weeks or so, just so you can make sure the guest isn't living like a pig in there, and if they are, keep the mess and dirt at bay. 

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Gloria688 

It really depends on..... how you want to do it AND type of guests you get. Like @Sarah977 , I also have a single occupancy private room & bath in my home. 

In our house rules we do state that hosts may need to enter the guest private spaces when guest is not home, for housekeeping purposes, to open/close windows or to turn lights off. For short term stays (less than 1 week) Henry and I rarely need to enter so we usually don't. But we also host a lot of long-term stays which are 4~5 months long - mainly exchange students. Because of the unique situation of most of our long-term guests, Henry and I handle all sheet/cover changes (every 10 days~ 2 weeks) and laundry of bedding and guest towels and we make it clear in our listing, house rules and separately to our guests in advance, that we do enter the guest room approximately once every 5~7 days (when the guest is out) to do a variety of housekeeping related activities. We also empty trash bins, check and refill amenities (Kleenex, TP, soap & shampoo), collect used towels, check drains and plumbing regularly. Also when we dust & vacuum the living room and common areas we will often include the guest bedroom *without disturbing any of the guest's personal items laying around* which was always very appreciated by our exchange student guests. We make it a rule not to clean up after guests since we aren't their maids or housekeepers, but we also take into consideration that they are still young (early 20s) and for a few also the first time away from home so try to keep things in perspective. We chat with long-term guests sometime during the 1st~2nd week of their stay to find the right balance so everyone is comfortable. For some guests, we stuck to a specific schedule (we'd only enter guest spaces on Tuesdays or Fridays, and on any other day if we had to, we'd ask first.) others said they didn't mind and some guests reached a level of comfort while staying with us where they would just leave the guest bedroom door wide open when leaving for school :--)))) 

[Helen3]

Hello @Gloria688 

In normal times I would clean the guests room weekly and provide a change over of towels and linens.

However now we are on lockdown in my country so no-one can offer STR because of the risk of spreading the virus.

Have you checked on regulations where you live to see if you are allowed to do STR.

If I was offering a shared space even if it was legal to do STR, personally I wouldn't risk having a series of guests travelling to use a shared space with me.